Panning technique help

goz63

Senior Member
Looking for a little help. I was shooting my horses last night in the arena with my D90 and 50mm 1.8D. I was shooting in shutter priority at 1/60th of a sec due to some low light. ISO 800 as well. The background was blurred sufficiently but the horses were often also. Any tips on how to improve? Would increasing the shutter speed help or do I need to increase my depth of field. (some parts of the horse are clear)?
Mark
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Post a sample of the picture with the problems you are referring to. Also we will need the EXIF data. A 50mm focused at 50 ft., f/1.8 has a depth of field of about 22.7 ft. With 8.7 ft. in front and 13.8 ft. behind. With that DOF you should get most if not all of the horse in focus. At 1/60 sec. with the horses running or moving at a fast pace there would probably be motion blurring. If you can't get the shutter speed up, to freeze the horses motion, use the panning technique. Even then parts of the horse movements may not be in focus. The D90 has a grid display, menu d2. That grid can help you track with the movement of the horse. Continue to track, (pan), the horse right through the shutter release. The D90 will do very well even with a ISO of 1250. You might try that to get the shutter speed up. After that the grain may be objectionable.
 

goz63

Senior Member
Joe, I will get a picture on here asap. I use the grid feature on the D90 for general orientation but did not think of using it to track with. Great idea. I think you are right that kicking up the shutter speed would help some, maybe around 125th. I probably have not followed through enough when hitting the shutter on some of them.
Thanks, Mark
 

goz63

Senior Member
Joe, here is one of the pics.
Nikon D90, 50mm 1.8D, ISO 800, 1/60s-F/1.8
Chief.jpg
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
The horse is well within the depth of field of the EXIF settings. The primary problem is subject motion blurring. You can see it in the hooves and the dirt arena he is running on. I don't really see any camera shake or there would be ghosting in the areas that are in focus. The solution is to get the shutter speed up. You are at an ISO of 800 now you could try going up in stages to 1600. That will also introduce grain (Digital Noise). With a noise reduction program you should get very usable shots. The other thing you can do is go to a f/1.4 lens. Even then going from a f/1.8 to f/1.4 is not a big gain but every little bit will help. The third thing you can do is use a flash. Modern day flash units produce a more natural light than the ones I used back in the old days. I currently use an SB800 in a very large auditorium size church and still get good pictures. The SB900 is currently the most powerful one produced by Nikon, however there is word that a new unit will be introduced shortly. I don't know if it will be any stronger than the SB900 but it's probably worth waiting for it's introduction and see what it can do. Hope this helps.
Happy shooting, :)
Joseph
 

goz63

Senior Member
Joeseph
Going up to an f/1.4 is not an option at this point. Have purchased the D90, kit lens plus three others, a flash and a monopod all in the last three months. If I went to my wife and said I was getting a new lens she would kill me LOL. I will try the increase increase in ISO. I also have the option of adding some light in the barn, the owner just does not like all the lights on for electric bills. I am not sure a flash will work with the horses, I don't want to spook them. It might "freeze them more though, I will have to think about that one. What shutter speed do you think would be a sweet spot on based on what you can see in those shots?
I appreciate your assessment.
Mark
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Yea, I know about the wife thing. Mine can most always tell me how much $ I have in my pocket at any given moment. It's always been my understanding that a bright light like a flash is not in the bag of fears for animals. I've shot rodeos in the past using flash and never given it much thought. I've never gotten any complaints from the riders. I'm certainly not the authority on the subject. If we have wildlife photographers and/or photographers with more experience in that area maybe they can join in the conversation. The shutter speed sweet spot would be at least 1/500 sec. That would probably be total freeze. But not practical for your shooting situation. From there it will depend on how much motion can you live with. To me having some motion blurring in the horses legs and hooves would not be objectionable. It would add to the sense of forward motion and speed. At 1/250 sec. you should still get good freeze shots with little or no motion. At 1/125 sec. you will see more motion and of course slower than that even more. It also depends on the motion of the horse and how fast they are moving at the time. Given the current conditions I would try to get the shutter speed up to at least 1/125 sec. Move the ISO to 1250 and ask your friend if he will increase the barn lighting just long enough to get the shots in. The D90 should still give you good shots even at ISO 1250. That with a little more lighting might get enough shutter speed for some good shots. Hope this helps,
Happy shooting, :)
Joseph
 

goz63

Senior Member
I will see how the horses do with the flash. I am new to the iTTL hot shoe flash and need to work with that anyway. Thanks for the thoughts on flash with the animals. I will let you know how that works.
I want some motion with the legs and hooves. I think 1/125th may be a good place to start. I can get the lights up for a little while and he probably won't bug me too much. I will try and bump the ISO up some more as well. So far I have been pleased with the low noise that the D90 gives at these higher ISO's. I have not tried to blow the pictures up really big at high ISO's but so far it looks more than acceptable. I hope I can get some more pictures this evening and will post when I do.
 

goz63

Senior Member
Well the higher shutter speed seemed to do the trick for me. The lighting was a little bit better today with some sun shining in the top of the barn. This is my favorite of all the pictures I took. I put the camera on "H" for shutter release and let it fly. All these were taken with the 50mm 1.8, shutter priority at 125s and ISO 1000. Some graininess in the pics if you blow them up but I think it did what I wanted. Thanks for the help.

chief 19.jpg
 
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